Penderwicks: Next Gen
by Lydia Thomas
Summary: A story about how the children of the original Penderwicks grew up. Creds to Emullz for the idea. It was a great one!
1. Two Babies on the Way

**Welcome to my first fanfic ever. I hope you enjoy. Please review and tell me what you liked, or, if there was something that you didn't like, tell me, so I can make it better. All of your reviews mean a lot to me. Thanks.**

 **Disclaimer: Some of these characters were not made up by me, they came from the stupendous mind of Jeanne Birdsall. But some of them were made up by me. So...**

"What do you guys think we should name the baby?" asked Rosalind. "She's coming soon, and we need a really good name."

"How about Tulip?" suggested five year old Elizabeth, Rosalind's first born.

"Um, I'm not sure about Tulip. But I do like flower names. Can you think of some other flowers?"

"Rose, rose, rose!" shrieked Theo, who had just turned three.

"No, not Rose," commented Tommy. "I hate roses. But I do love you Rosie."

"How about Violet?"

Rosalind gasped. "Violet is perfect. Thank you, Lizzy." Turning her attention back to her husband, she said, "Do you like Violet, Tommy?"

"I love it," he replied with a quick kiss on the cheek, which was met with a loud, " Aww!" from Elizabeth. "Now, Lizzy and Theo, go pick up your rooms a little bit, the rest of the family will be here soon." They obediently left to go clean their rooms, as they always wanted to leave a good impression on their aunts, uncles, and grandparents. " I can't believe that you planned a baby shower for Emma. That was so sweet, and probably a lot of work."

Rosalind shrugged. "Well," she said, "I needed something to do with all of my free time. Besides no one else was going to do it, and no woman should have to plan her own."

"That's what I love about you, Rosie. Alway thinking of others." Tommy leaned down to give her a kiss, but the doorbell rang, interrupting them. He left his wife on the couch and went to go answer the door. Always the first to arrive, there was Jane, her husband Nate, and their son, David.

"Hello, Superman," trilled Jane, giving Tommy a kiss on the cheek.

"It's nice to see you, Jane," he said, laughing softly at the memory of planning to go trick or treating as Superman with his first awful girlfriend, Trilby. "May I take your coat?"

"Oh, what a gentleman. You know, I based Toby off of you."

"Toby?"

"The antagonist of my new book, The Girl With the Sunflower Eyes."

"Sounds cool. Now, come in. Theo is bouncing off the walls with excitement. He can't wait to see his favorite cousin." Upon hearing this, David rushed as fast as his still chubby three year old legs could carry him to Theo's room. Jane laughed and followed Tommy to the living room, where Rosalind greeted them both. Then came a knock at the door and people started flowing in. First was Martin and Iantha Penderwick, then Batty and her husband, Eric, followed by Skye and her boyfriend Pearson. A few minutes later Lydia arrived by herself and Ben right after with his girlfriend were Emma's parents, Jeanne and Henry, and Jeffrey's mom and dad, Alec and Mrs. Tifton. Last but not least were the guests of honor, Jeffrey and his wife Emma, and their soon to be baby girl.

Tommy and Nate passed out drinks, wine for the adults and lemonade for the kids. Elizabeth went off to play with the boys, and Mr. Penderwick got the grill started. Emerald, the Geigers' basset hound, ran around, sniffing feet and licking toes. Pretty soon, the adults started chatting, and they talked, laughed, and ate the whole night.


	2. Surprises, Surprises

**In this chapter there are a few new additions, and time moves quite quickly. After this, I think I'm going to skip a few years so that I have some older kids to make this more of a middle grade story. Please review and tell me what I should fix or what you especially like.**

"Welcome to the family, Violet," whispered Tommy, staring down at his newborn daughter. Suddenly, his phone rang, shattering the tranquil silence of the hospital room. "I'm so sorry, Rosie. I'll be right back." He exited the room quietly, feeling comfortable leaving Rosalind in the hands of her four sisters. Ben was waiting outside. Tommy grabbed his phone out of his pocket and answered it. "Hello?"

"Tommy? It's me, Jeffrey."

"Hey, Jeffrey, how are you?"

"Um, I'm fine, I just wanted to tell someone, Clara just had her baby."

"Congratulations! You heard about Rosalind already, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. Jane called me as soon as it happened. I have to go now, so bye." The phone clicked and Tommy put it back in his pocket, eager to go be with Violet and Rosalind.

Later that afternoon, Tommy left to go pick up Elizabeth and Theo from Jane and Nate's house. He brought them back to the hospital, where they met their new sister. Tommy exchanged texts with Jeffrey and they arranged to get the entire family together in two weeks, when both Rosalind and Clara would be back from the hospital. Rosalind would be released in two days, but Charlotte, Clara's baby, was premature, so the two of them had to stay at the hospital for longer.

Two weeks later, the entire Geiger/ Penderwick/Tifton/other family was gathered at Batty and Eric's house. The adults oohed and ahhed over their new nieces, and the kids pretty much ignored their new cousins. There was much joy and merrymaking as the family joined together to welcome the new additions to their family.

At dinner, Ben stood up and tapped his fork against his glass. "Well, I don't mean to take away from the celebration of these two beautiful babies, but Clara and I have something to tell you." Clara stood up and joined him. "We're getting married." The room broke into shouts and screams, wails from the new babies, and many, many hugs.

"You have to tell us everything," exclaimed Lydia. "I want details."

"We were out for a walk near the lake, and he just, well, popped the question."

"Awwww!" chorused all of the women and Tommy. He was a sucker for sappy stories.

"Now that we're all making announcements, Eric and I would like to make one too," said Batty, a smile spreading across her face. "I'm pregnant!" Again the room erupted into celebration.

Jane and Nate stood up, clearing their throats. "I've been waiting for the perfect time, and now seems like it. I'm going to have a baby!"

By now the entire family's throats were sore from cheering, but they gave Jane and Nate just as much whooping and hollering as they had the other two.

"Well," remarked Iantha, "today certainly was full of surprises. Now, who's ready for dessert?"

The excitement that flowed through that family was greater than it had ever been before. And three months later, Emma announced that she was pregnant again.

Nine months later, Jane birthed a darling baby who she named Lucy, after her favorite character from The Chronicles of Narnia, Batty had her first child, a boy, who she named Jeffrey after her _mentore,_ honorary brother, and very close friend _._ Emma had another healthy baby girl named Cassandra Churchie Tifton, in honor of the late Churchie, who was like a mother to Jeffrey.


	3. The Start of Summer

**This chapter takes place 10 years after the very end of the second chapter. Rosalind and Tommy have three kids, Elizabeth- 16, Theo- 14, Violet-11. Skye and Pearson have no kids, Jane and Nate have two, David- 14 and Lucy-10. Batty and Eric have three, Jeffrey-10, Ella and Cole-8. Ben and Clara have two, Alex- 7 and Nick-4. Lydia and Noah have three, June-7, May and April-5. Jeffrey and Emma have two named Charlotte-11 and Cassie- 10. I wanted to make this more of a middle grade story, so I skipped ten years. I hope you enjoy.**

The entire Penderwick clan was splitting up for the summer. Elizabeth was off to Utah for six weeks on a trip with her rock climbing team and Theo, David, Charlotte, Violet, Lucy, and Jeffrey were heading off to Camp Thunderclap, a magical overnight summer camp nestled in the backwoods of New Hampshire, not to return for three and a half weeks. Skye and Pearson had decided to take a tour of Europe that would last eight weeks, and the rest were staying in Cameron. Once all of the travelers returned, the entire family would head to Point Mouette, where they would spend two weeks relaxing by the beach.

First the adults would drop off the summer campers. As they packed the car with duffel bags, the kids couldn't stop talking about what they were most excited for. Theo and David had been going to camp since they were ten. Even though you could start camp when you were eight, their parents hadn't felt comfortable sending them away that young. Elizabeth had gone once, when she was eleven, but hadn't enjoyed as much as the others seemed to, so she spent her summers doing other things that were more enjoyable for her. This was Lucy and Jeffrey's first year. Jeffrey wasn't nervous at all, but Lucy was. She wished she had a cousin her age like David and Theo or Violet and Charlotte. She had Jeffrey, of course, but they couldn't bunk together seeing as he was a boy, and she was not.

At their camp, the boys twelve and under lived in cabins, while the girls twelve and under lived in "dorms", which were just six cabin like rooms joined together. The boys and girls thirteen and older lived in bungalows, which were just like the cabins. The area with the bungalows was called the Tent Unit, as it also contained platform tents where the Leaders in Training, or LITs, slept.

After a fairly short drive, the eleven Penderwicks arrived at the camp. As their cars made their ways up the winding dirt driveway, counselors flagged them down, greeted them and then directed them to the Meeting House where they could check in. Once they arrived at the Meeting House, more counselors took the luggage and loaded it onto a pickup truck where it would be taken directly to their bunks.

"Isn't this exciting?" whispered Nate to Lucy. She didn't say a word, but she grabbed her dad's hand and squeezed it tightly.

Once through registration, the four families split up to check out the different living spaces and meet counselors and bunkmates. Jane, Nate, Lucy, and David went first to the dorms. Lucy had been placed in Dorm B, with seven other ten year olds. The foursome walked up a short flight of stairs to Lucy's dorm. Her two counselors were waiting there for campers.

"Hi! You must be Lucy! Everyone else is already here. Looks like you get the bottom bunk in the back, right below Emma. You can make your bed, put some things on your shelf. Make yourself at home! Oh, and I'm Jenna, nice to meet you!" Jenna swooped in for a giant hug. Next, Leah introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Leah. We're so happy to have you here with us."

"Alright then, Lucy, we're going to go help David set up, and then we'll be right back, okay? Or, I could stay and Dad could go with David." Jane said.

"Yes." said Lucy quietly.

"Yes, what?"

"You stay."

"Okay." Turning to face David, she said, "I'm just going to help your sister out and then I'll be over to see your bungalow." David nodded and left the dorm, his father following close behind.

Jane and Lucy had finished making Lucy's bed with her brand new flowered sheets and had set up the small shelf next to her bed. Jane had gone to see David's bungalow, and Lucy was putting her sweatshirts and other things she might need to grab while leaving the dorm on the shelf next to the door. Suddenly, a group of giggling girls walked in. They were all talking to each other, and didn't notice Lucy until a dirty blonde girl wearing a Philadelphia Union soccer jersey happened to look over her direction. As soon as they made eye contact, the girl came bounding over, grabbed Lucy's hand, and shook it vigorously.

"I'm Gwen. Who are you?" she inquired excitedly.

"Lucy," Lucy answered.

"Guys," yelled Gwen, turning to the other five girls, "come say hi to Lucy." They looked hesitant, but then another girl broke off from the group and walked over. She had thick, dark, wavy brown hair and a big smile.

"I'm Sadie," she said. "I go to school with Gwen and Katya and Kira." Sadie motioned to the other dirty blond girl, who had stick straight hair, teal braces, and a Hamilton shirt. She waved when Sadie mentioned her.

"Katya is my twin," Gwen said, grabbing a pale girl with dark brown hair and blue eyes who looked nothing like her. "We don't look a lot alike, but we really are." Lucy had believed them the first time, but she had thought that it was strange that they didn't look very similar. Gwen went on with the introductions. "That over there is Emma," she said, waving her hand in the general direction of a girl with long brown hair and blond highlights, who was currently bending over a small hand mirror so she could re-apply her mascara. She straightened up at the mention of her name, and Lucy noticed the makeup on her face. It was clear that she was wearing foundation, concealer, blush, the whole shebang. "And that," concluded Gwen, "is Erin." Erin turned out to be a small, skinny, tanned girl with light brown hair and a brother in the cabins.

"I thought that there was supposed to be eight of us. There's only seven here," Lucy piped up.

Emma spoke this time. "That's because Charlie got lice and had to go to the HMO (the camp infirmary). The same thing happened last year."

"You were here last year?"

"Yeah. So were Erin, Gwen, Katya, and Charlie, of course."

"Oh, so you guys all know each other, and Kira and Sadie know Katya and Gwen and each other." Lucy couldn't help feeling a little left out. Everyone already had friends in their dorm except her. She had no one.

Soon it was time for the parents to leave. Hugs and kisses were exchanged, and there were quite few tears from Lucy. Finally, the last car made its way out of the lot, and Lucy returned to the main deck and sat with her counselors. The day went by slowly, with dinner and a game of capture the flag ending it nicely. It was quite hard to sleep that night, seeing as one of the girls in her dorm, Sadie, screamed in her sleep frequently. But she finally drifted off, all the while thinking of how much she missed her own bed.


End file.
